A handful of Wheaton College professors elected by their faculty peers have called on the west suburban school to vacate the administrative leave and proposed termination of their colleague who said Muslims and Christians worship the same God.

In a letter sent Wednesday, the college's faculty council told its peers that it had unanimously recommended withdrawing the suspension and halting termination proceedings of tenured professor Larycia Hawkins "due to grave concerns about the process."

"The only way forward is to go back to the beginning where this whole thing started with Larycia," said Gary Burge, a professor and New Testament scholar, and member of the faculty council. "My own feeling is that the college will find the courage to rescind the leave of absence."

But at a listening session for faculty convened by college President Philip Ryken on Thursday, faculty said they did most of the listening and heard mostly talking points from administrators.

"There was a lot of frustration," said psychology professor Michael Mangis. "It was really us listening to them and their statements of how they hoped that their relationships and trust could be restored. But they didn't choose to follow the faculty council's admonition to reverse their decision."

The agenda, set by the faculty council, included a discussion of whether the college has a position on what can be said regarding whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God, and a process for determining acceptable interpretations of the statement of faith, 12 evangelical beliefs that all Wheaton professors must sign and live out. Ryken and Provost Stanton Jones also were asked to address how faculty will know in the future whether their statements could be deemed unacceptable by administration.

Known as the "Harvard of Christian colleges," Wheaton College in Chicago's western suburbs toils to attract quality faculty who can integrate their Christian faith with the topics they teach. At conferences and meetings, faculty are always on the lookout for potential colleagues.

But the attempted...

(Manya Brachear Pashman)

Although the council has not sought a facultywide endorsement of its recommendation, tenured professors who want a vote could call for one Tuesday during a regularly scheduled faculty meeting.

Hawkins said she continues to pursue reconciliation "for the sake of both my students and my colleagues, and the latter especially because they could be subjected to the same lack of due process that I have been subjected to."

"I feel strengthened by the fact that the recommendation itself was unanimous from the faculty council," Hawkins said Thursday. "There appears to be some clarity among the faculty that the college has abrogated its own procedures."

Earlier this month, before students returned to campus from winter break, Jones took the first step toward firing Hawkins, a political science professor who expressed her support for Muslims unfairly targeted after the Paris terrorist attacks by wearing a Muslim headscarf until Christmas. The college said it took issue with her explanation on social media, not the gesture itself.

"I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book," she posted on Facebook, along with a photograph of herself in a hijab. "And as Pope Francis stated … we worship the same God."

According to the private evangelical college, not clarifying what makes Christianity distinct from Islam put Hawkins in conflict with Wheaton's statement of faith.

As part of the termination process, Hawkins is expected to attend a Feb. 11 hearing with the college's faculty personnel committee, an elected body made up of nine tenured faculty members. The committee will hear testimony and evidence from both sides and make a recommendation to Ryken regarding Hawkins' tenure. Ryken then will make a recommendation to the Wheaton College board of trustees.

Neither the faculty council resolution nor a potential faculty vote would be binding. In fact, the college said in a statement Thursday that the administration "respects the viewpoints of its Faculty Council" but stopped short of saying it would consider its recommendation.

"President Ryken and the Faculty Council have discussed a review of current policies and processes, with a view to addressing or clarifying areas of concern," the statement said. "However, Dr. Ryken has also asked Faculty Council to understand that the Faculty Personnel Committee hearing is the method through which the particulars of Dr. Hawkins' personnel matter will be addressed."

Mangis said he left the faculty forum Thursday feeling discouraged.

"The whole thing was administration-speak," he said. "I felt kind of handled."

Burge said he sincerely believes everyone came to the gathering with good intentions, but the administration "could have gone further to alleviate grave faculty concerns."

"I've known the leaders of this college for 22 years," Burge said. "They are people of good will. We faced a theological question we had never seen and we responded too quickly. Now everybody is simply trying to find a way out. I don't hear language of recrimination. I hear language of reconciliation."

A version of this article appeared in print on January 22, 2016, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Wheaton faculty leaders call for reinstatement - `Frustration' after meeting about suspended professor" —
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